Black theater began as a demeaning and hateful often portraying Blacks through a technique known as black-face, where white actors would cover their face and skin with a pigment that changed their skin black. These performances illustrated Black men and women as unintelligent, and incapable of significant cognitive function. Essentially the very beginning of Black Theater had no black actors, due to its demeaning and hurtful nature. Plays like the 1769 ,The Padlock, were among those plays to portray Black in such a way. It wan't until 1776 that African Americans were portrayed in a accurate, more precise way. John Leacock's The Fall of the British Tyranny featured this positive portrayal of African American and helped pave the way for other plays, like A Leap of Freedom, which became the first play to be solely by African Americans. The play was never brought to stage, but it helped open doors for institutions like the African Grove theater, which was oasis for black actors to find opportunities. All of these institutions helped to break down the typical portrayal of ignorant and stupid African American shell characters in plays, and opened the door for more three dimensional, true characters. Famous books like Uncle Tom's Cabin were introduced into the Black theater repertoire, which were massively popular and opened the theater to the national scene. The Harlem renaissance opened new doors for the " New Negro" which was a time of intelligence, and a cultural revitalization. This attracted many new artists and actors to the scene. Harlem plays became wildly popular attracting people from all over town. The Harlem Renaissance created a "racial awareness" and provided a sense of community for Blacks at the time as the plays were by them for them. This sense of community helped provide the right situation for Black theater groups to form. Groups like The Toussaint Players and the Harlem Experimental. During the Great Depression as a part of FDR's relief program/initiative he created federal theater which employed African Americans. The civil rights movement in the 60s impacted the black theater very much so prompting plays that comment on the societal issues during that time.